Best Credit/Debit Card for FF Miles?

[pointsjunkie]

if you are the type of person who pays off their credit cards every month then go for the starwood amex card. If you spend $15000 in a 6 month period then go on SPG.com and hit the lower right hand corner where it says earn 25000 starpoints and then apply for the card.

we used to be cash back only until i figured out the comings and goings of the airline cards. we went to Italy using miles 2 first class tickets which would have cost us $1800 each. If we had a cash back card we would have had to spend over $300,000 to get back $3600. I did not come close to spending that kind of money. It was built up over time and it was way under $50,000.

[janna1]

Originally Posted by pointsjunkie

if you are the type of person who pays off their credit cards every month then go for the starwood amex card. If you spend $15000 in a 6 month period then go on SPG.com and hit the lower right hand corner where it says earn 25000 starpoints and then apply for the card.

we used to be cash back only until i figured out the comings and goings of the airline cards. we went to Italy using miles 2 first class tickets which would have cost us $1800 each. If we had a cash back card we would have had to spend over $300,000 to get back $3600. I did not come close to spending that kind of money. It was built up over time and it was way under $50,000.

How many miles you need for your ticket to Italy? Do you book through the airline FF program or from starflights? Thanks.

[rickandcindy23]

I was going to start a new thread, but I remembered this old one.

We are looking at more travel cards for miles, and so I started comparing different cards, just to see what would help us best.

Capital One Venture card has double miles on every purchase. DOUBLE MILES! You buy any ticket, any airline, whatever bargain you can find, and the miles apply to the payment of that ticket. But it's not tied to an airline, so instead of getting the miles, you get cash off the ticket, so a build of 20K miles, you get a $200 rebate back for a ticket purchase. So $10K in purchases on the card buys a $200 airline ticket. The card doesn't have a fee. Our tickets to San Francisco in March were only $159 all in, pp. If I used our Frontier card, we would use 20K miles for that trip, each person, and that would have been a waste of money. With this card, $8K X 2 miles per dollar in CC purchases would buy that ticket.

Discover Escapes also does double miles and works the same way.

I compare these cards to our recent FF mile redemption with our USAirways card. We were able to get two RT tickets to Hawaii for $120 in fees and get economy going, first-class coming home (at night). This cost us 100K miles for both tickets. Not bad.

We couldn't buy the ticket with economy going, first-class coming home. (I don't think a person can do that.) But the option was there for an award ticket, and it saved miles, and we aren't as uncomfortable going as coming home.

So the Capital One and Discover aren't as good as US Airways, for that reason. The cost of First Class is crazy high all the time, so double miles wouldn't help us much.

Rick said we should buy economy tickets using the Venture card, then upgrade to first class with miles through US Airways. That's an idea.

[janej]

I just signed up for the Capital One Venture card too. I am still waiting for it to come in the mail. Another reason I signed up for the card is that there is no foreign transaction fee. I will use it to pay my Australia Timeshare MF. Last time I used my Chase visa card, the fee was $26.

[rickandcindy23]

Originally Posted by janej

I just signed up for the Capital One Venture card too. I am still waiting for it to come in the mail. Another reason I signed up for the card is that there is no foreign transaction fee. I will use it to pay my Australia Timeshare MF. Last time I used my Chase visa card, the fee was $26.

Yes, we also have our Aussie timeshare to pay fees July 1st, and the no foreign transaction fees was a huge plus for that card for us too. I find it ironic that you mentioned that savings too, and that you also own in Australia.

By the way, have you see the Aussie dollar's value now? We are going to pay high rates for those RCI Points we own now. I wish we had done something different to get RCI Points.

[rickandcindy23]

Any advice for me on the Venture or Discover credit cards for miles?

[Laurie]

Capital One cardholders, register for an online acct and then check out "earn bonus miles" vendors.

There are some great deals - such as, Sears online allows you to order online and if you want, pick up at local store almost immediately - and if you go thru Cap One portal, you get 5 bonus miles per dollar spent, in addition to your regular miles.

They have regular sales on appliances, esp Kenmore, so those miles can add up quickly.

Hundreds of other good bonus miles deals there. I just discovered this feature, wish I'd known about it long ago.

[short]

My husbands business bank offers Points2U. Does anyone have this and have any opinions to offer?

Short

[rickandcindy23]

Originally Posted by Laurie

Capital One cardholders, register for an online acct and then check out "earn bonus miles" vendors.

There are some great deals - such as, Sears online allows you to order online and if you want, pick up at local store almost immediately - and if you go thru Cap One portal, you get 5 bonus miles per dollar spent, in addition to your regular miles.

They have regular sales on appliances, esp Kenmore, so those miles can add up quickly.

Hundreds of other good bonus miles deals there. I just discovered this feature, wish I'd known about it long ago.

Thanks for that information. I am really thinking the Capital One Ventures card is the one for us. We have so many cards right now, I feel like we should cancel some, like our Hawaiian Airlines, and our Delta Skymiles card, which I don't think we will renew this year for the $95 they are asking for the stupid thing.

I am at a loss as to what we should do about all of these credit cards we have!! I don't necessarily care if our credit rating gets dinged a few points for cancelling cards.